Midnight Family | Film Festival Today

Film Review: Magnificent “Midnight Family” Sheds Light on the Human Condition

December 6, 2019

Christopher Llewellyn Reed’s Top Picks for AFI DOCS 2019

June 19, 2019

AFI DOCS 2019: Festival Director Michael Lumpkin Discusses This Year’s Program

May 17, 2019

A still from Midnight Family by Luke Lorentzen, an official selection of the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute | photo by Luke Lorentzen.

Sundance 2019 – Film Review: Midnight Family Finds Humanity Amongst Chaos

February 23, 2019

Film Review: Sometimes Hackneyed “Official Competition” Still Delivers Sharp Barbs
By Christopher Llewellyn Reed
June 24, 2022
Official Competition (Mariano Cohn/Gastón Duprat, 2021) 2½ out of 4 stars. Satires about the art world run the danger of trafficking in tired stereotypes of moody and/or arrogant creatives, talented and hack alike; their cinematic cousins are no different. In Official Competition, Argentinian filmmaking partners Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat (The Distinguished Citizen) come far too close to the edge of burlesque pitfalls for comfort, yet ... >>
Film Review: “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On” Overflows with Wonder
By Robin C. Farrell
June 23, 2022
Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (Dean Fleischer-Camp, 2021) 4 out of 4 stars. It’s difficult to articulate what makes Marcel the Shell with Shoes On so wonderful. The film delivers on the promise of its trailer: a surplus of wholesome charm and quirky humor throughout but underneath the whimsy beats an unironic, introspective heart. The story is both simple and intricate: Marcel (Jenny Slate, The Bob’s Burgers Movie) is an anthropomorphic ... >>
Film Review: “Press Play” Delivers Heartbreak and Hope
By Robin C. Farrell
June 22, 2022
Press Play (Greg Björkman, 2022) 3 out of 4 stars. The oft-revisited time-rewinding narrative can be difficult to pull off. Press Play manages to do so by leaning into expectations and relishing the experience. Laura (Clara Rugaard, I Am Mother), a painter living in an exquisite beach town, reluctantly allows her best friend, Chloe (Lyrica Okano, Story Game), to arrange a set-up with her brother, Harrison (Lewis Pullman, Top Gun: Maverick), a ... >>
Film Review: “Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story” Is a Joy and a Delight
By Heidi Shepler
May 27, 2022
Jazz Fest: A New Orleans Story (Frank Marshall/Ryan Suffern, 2022) 3½ out of 4 stars. For more than fifty years, the New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival, better known as Jazz Fest, has brought hundreds of thousands of people to a relatively plain-looking fairgrounds for a celebration of New Orleans’ music, culture, and food. With seven thousand musicians performing over the course of eight days, not to mention the thousands of pounds of fried and ... >>
Film Review: “Scare Zone” Takes Us Behind the Scenes of a Halloween Haunted House
By Matt Patti
May 26, 2022
Scare Zone (Jon Binkowski, 2009) 2 ½ out of 4 stars. As an avid enthusiast of Halloween “Haunts,” I journey to a handful of different attractions each October. Haunted Hayrides, Haunted Houses, Haunted Trails, Haunts at Theme Parks … you name it, I’m game. Director Jon Binkowski’s Scare Zone therefore piqued my interest, especially after I discovered that the movie was filmed on location at a bona fide haunted attraction inside the Universal ... >>

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